When participating in many leisure activities, it is often desired to bring along food or beverages for consumption before, during, and/or after the activity. Often, the food may be perishable and the ambient temperature may be high (for instance, at a beach location), so it is desired to keep the perishable food in a temperature-controlled environment to avoid spoiling. Similarly, beverages (such as canned beverages) may also be consumed, and it is desired to keep such beverages cool until consumption. Typically, a cooler may be used to transport the food and beverages while maintaining them in a temperature-controlled environment. The cooler typically has a main portion and a cover portion removably secured to the main portion, and the main portion has side walls and a bottom wall that may be insulated. Ice and/or cooling packs may be placed in an interior portion of the cooler defined by the side walls and bottom wall to keep the interior portion of the cooler at a desired temperature that is lower than the ambient temperature.
Typically, all food and beverage items are placed in the interior portion of the cooler, where they are subjected to the same bed of ice and/or cooling packs, and therefore all items are maintained at approximately the same temperature. In addition, the food and beverage items may tend to shift during transport of the cooler, making the interior portion disorganized and obscuring the type of items in the interior portion. There is therefore a need to organize items in a cooler to simplify identification of the items and maintain order in the interior portion of the cooler.
Often, items are also transported along with the cooler that are related to the activity and/or consumption of the foods and beverages in the interior portion of the cooler. For example, bottle openers, napkins, utensils, tongs, cups, radios, speakers, etc. may be transported to the leisure activity with the cooler. However, these additional items are often gathered prior to the activity and may be forgotten when departing for the activity. In addition, the items may be left in a vehicle that is remote from the leisure activity and cooler, resulting in time wasted to retrieve the items left behind. Moreover, due to the haphazard nature in which the items are transported from a vehicle to a final location for the leisure activity, items could be dropped or lost along the way. Accordingly, there is a need for a cooler assembly that provides accessories (such as containers for items) that can be removably and reliably secured to the cooler such that items can be stored with the cooler and will not be lost or misplaced prior to their use.